Alfred “Al” Münzer was born on November 23, 1941 in The Hague, Netherlands to Simcha (Siegfried) and Gisele (Gitla) Münzer. Simcha owned a men’s tailoring business and Gisele remained at home to look after Alfred and his two older sisters, Eva and Leah (Liane). When Alfred was born, the Netherlands was already occupied b y Nazi Germany. By September 1942, it became apparent that the entire family would need to go into hiding. Simcha faked a suicide attempt in order to be committed to a psychiatric. Meanwhile, Gisele settled her children with neighbors before joining Simcha at the hospital as a nurse’s assistant.
Eva and Leah were initially placed with two sisters, Jo and Kovan Leeuwen. About a year later, the girls were moved to the home of another woman, Roza Marie (Rosalia) Mazurowski. But in early 1944, the woman’s husband allegedly denounced her and the girls to the authorities. All three were arrested. The girls were then sent to Westerbork transit camp. On February 8 , 1944 seven-year-old Eva, five-year-old Leah were deported to Auschwitz. Seemingly by chance, Elische (Emil) Münzer, Simcha’s youngest brother, was on the same transport. They arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau two days later and killed in gas chambers.
Alfred was put in the care of a family friend and neighbor named Annie Madna, who placed him with her ex-husband, Tolé, a native o f Indonesia. For the next three years Alfred remained in Tolé’s home, looked after by their Muslim housekeeper, Mima Saina, who became his surrogate mother. The Madnas treated him as one of their own children, but he was not allowed to leave the house for fear that someone might see him and become suspicious.
On December 31, 1942, the German police carried out a raid on the hospital where Al’s parents were hiding. Alfred’s parents were arrested and deported first to Westerbork then to Vught. In March 1944, Simcha was sent back to Westerbork and from there deported to Auschwitz, where he was registered as prisoner number 175442. Simcha was sent to Mauthausen and a number of other camps before being liberated at Ebensee. He died two months later at a nearby convent where he was receiving medical treatment.
In Vught, Gisele was part of a work detail called the so-called Philips commando and worked in a factory for the Philips electronics company. In June 1944, the prisoners of Philips commando were deported to Auschwitz. Gisele was then sent to Reichenbach, where she worked at a nearby Telefunken factory. She was sent to a series of other camps, and in the spring of 1945, Gisele was liberated at the German border with Denmark and evacuated to Sweden. In July she was repatriated to the Netherlands.
When Gisele returned for Alfred, the three-and-a-half year-old had no memory of who she was. In order to ease the transition, Gisele invited Alfred’s surrogate mother, Mima, to continue to care for him. However, a few months later Mima died. Alfred and his mother immigrated to the United States in 1958. Today, Alfred is retired from his work as an internist and pulmonologist and lives in Washington, DC. He still maintains a close relationship with Tolé’s children and grandchildren.